Friends of Sway Village Hall

A new group has formed in Sway called 'Friends of Sway Village Hall'. Our group is mandated by the Trustees of the Village Hall.

Friends of Sway Village Hall

SWAY VILLAGE Open Drop-In Afternoon

The Friends of Sway Village Hall are moving forward with the aim of fulfilling their Improvement Project for the Village Hall in Sway.

We continue to seek and receive residents' views. Only by doing so can we deliver a project that is supported by the Village and fit for purpose.

Our focus has necessarily now shifted to fund-raising. The scheme requires £500,000 for completion as the plans stand. The team is looking for funding from all areas: private funding bodies, public funding bodies and locally from private donors.

An Open Village Hall Drop-In session will be held on Saturday 16 September 2017 between 2.00 & 4.00pm.

We invite you to come along, to talk to us about the project, to continue to express your views, and to assess if you can help us on the journey.

Help is welcome in various forms, not only by donating, but also by offering your skills, advice, expertise and a little bit of your time.

We do hope as many residents as possible take up this opportunity.

If you would like to contact us to talk before September, or would like to speak to us privately about a donation, please email:

On 3rd December at the Public Consultation Meeting, arranged by the former Social Club Trustees and held in Sway Village Hall, the Friends of Sway Village Hall displayed an informative and professional presentation. Click on the images below to see the full sized PDF versions of them.

Board 1 showed the Survey results

and, distilled from these, a Priority List for an improved Village Hall, provided by the responses from 326 villagers and users of the Hall.

They also unveiled conceptual designs which propose real improvements at the Hall on Boards 2 & 3, showing the hoped-for new Ground Floor plan

and First Floor plan.

The conceptual designs implicitly respond to the wishes which Sway villagers highlighted in the survey.

The Friends' proposal will transform the Village Hall into a fully accessible, social community space incorporating a striking new entrance, improved flow resulting from a better layout of the building, numerous improvements to social facilities, links with the outdoor area at Stanford Rise Green, a cinema + live screenings and new letting possibilities for user groups and private hirers. The Foyer could become the Information Hub of Sway and the Friends are sure that all villagers from 2 to 102 from every sector of our community will enjoy a variety of activities in our central community facility for many years to come.

Some history:

Following the survey period at the beginning of October, FoSVH analysed and drew conclusions from the data. A brief for our chosen architect was compiled.

The architect was engaged on Monday 31 October and began work on a Concept Design for our Village Hall upgrade proposal in preparation for the Public Consultation Day on 3 December, which was organized by Ian Gale and the Trustees of the former Social Club.

The Public Consultation Day was held at Sway Village Hall.

We were delighted to see so many Sway villagers at our Presentation to the Public Meeting.